Gill will continue attending AHF meetings

By Avishek Roy Hyderabad, July 17 (IANS) In a setback to the ad-hoc committee of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) Thursday said it cannot stop dissolved Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) chief K.P.S Gill from attending its council meeting and it is for the incumbent to decide whether he wants to complete his term till 2010. Gill is one of the five vice-presidents of AHF and flew in from Delhi to attend the meeting here Thursday.

AHF secretary general P. Alagendra had a torrid time replying to the queries of reporters even as he explained that the members to the council are elected in their “individual capacity.”

“He (Gill) is an elected member till 2010. He will continue to serve till then. It is his prerogative whether he wants to attend the meeting or not or till the time we get a get a direction from a competent authority,” he said.

Asked which authority he was talking about, Alagendra refused to elaborate.

“We are not sitting here to speculate. It is outside the scope of AHF. The constitution is our bible and until it is changed, we will follow it,” he said.

Alagendra though said that at the moment they are dealing with the ad-hoc committee after IHF was dissolved.

“We were informed that the ad-hoc committee is responsible for this tournament and we are working with them.”

He also informed that the council has decided to start an Asian Champions Trophy in which top four teams from the continent will participate.

“We will also select an Asian all-star team which will play a Test series with an European all-star team next year. It will be on home and away basis and the dates will be finalised in next two months.”

It was also decided that the men’s Asia Cup will be held in Dubai and that the junior World Cup which will be co-hosted by Singapore and Malaysia will have 20 teams and six from Asia. Four teams will qualify from the ongoing junior Asia Cup hockey tournament here. India, Pakistan, Korea and Japan reached the semi-finals of the event and have qualified for the event apart from the two co-hosts.

Ad-hoc committee convener Mohammad Aslam made a brief appearance at the meeting as he was also present in the two-day International Hockey Federation (FIH) meeting with the ad-hoc committee.

Vidya Stokes, president, and Amrit Bose, secretary of the Indian Women’s Hockey Federation (IWHF) were also present at the meeting.